A free AI chatbot generator for small businesses — no code, no signup, self-hosted forever.
DIYChatbots lets a small business owner with zero technical background pick an industry template, customise it with their own branding and knowledge base, and deploy a working AI assistant to their website. No subscription, no message limits, no account with DIYChatbots at all — the generated chatbot is a self-contained file the business owns and hosts themselves.
🌐 Live at diychatbots.com — free, no account needed
You run a small business and keep hearing you should "have an AI chatbot" — but:
- Every AI chatbot tool you've found wants $35–150/month before you can even try it
- You don't have a developer, and "no-code" platforms still assume you're comfortable with a SaaS dashboard
- You have no idea what an API key is, let alone how to keep one private
- You're not sure what happens to your customers' conversations, or what the AI is even allowed to say
DIYChatbots is built for exactly this: zero cost to try, zero technical background required, and plain-English guidance the whole way — including on the trust and liability questions most tools never mention. See AI Employee Terms & Guidelines for that part.
12 industry templates — IT Support, HR, Retail & E-commerce, Education, Healthcare, Legal & Compliance, Hospitality, Finance & Banking, Sales & Product Info, Documentation (manual/document Q&A), Restaurants & Cafés, and Small Shops & Boutiques — each with a pre-built persona, quick-actions, and a live demo you can try before downloading anything.
A live builder — customise company name, bot name, avatar, brand colour, tone, welcome message, and knowledge base, with the chat preview updating as you type.
Knowledge base ingestion — paste FAQs, upload documents, or reference URLs so the AI answers from your actual business content instead of guessing.
A private backend, kept simple — the generated chatbot never contains your API key. Instead you deploy a small Cloudflare Worker (proxy.js, included in this repo) that holds the key privately and relays requests to Anthropic's Claude API.
Demo mode — try the full interface with sample replies before connecting a real AI key, useful for showing stakeholders or just kicking the tyres.
A plain-English setup guide — downloads alongside your chatbot, covering GitHub account creation, uploading, enabling free hosting, and adding your knowledge base, written for someone doing this for the first time.
Your customer's browser
│ types a message
▼
Your chatbot (a static HTML file you host on GitHub Pages)
│ sends the message
▼
Your backend (a Cloudflare Worker you deploy — proxy.js)
│ adds your private API key
▼
Anthropic's Claude API
│ generates a reply
▼
Back to your customer
Nothing passes through DIYChatbots at any point — there's no DIYChatbots server in this chain. You control your own hosting, your own backend, and your own API key end to end.
- Go to diychatbots.com
- Pick a template, customise it, click Download Free
- Follow the setup guide that downloads with it — GitHub Pages hosting and the Cloudflare Worker backend both take about 15–20 minutes total, first time through
No local setup, no cloning this repo, required for that path.
DIYChatbots' generator is a single static HTML file — no build step, no dependencies.
git clone https://github.com/ekbm/DIYchatbots
cd DIYchatbots
python -m http.server 8000Then open http://localhost:8000/index.html in your browser.
proxy.js is the Cloudflare Worker template deployed by end users, not run locally — see SETUP-GUIDE.md for how it's used.
The whole pitch of DIYChatbots is trust: a small business owner is being asked to deploy something that holds their API key and talks to their customers. Being able to read proxy.js yourself — or have a more technical friend read it — before trusting it is the most honest thing a tool like this can offer.
Found a bug, or a template idea for an industry that isn't covered yet? Use the Contact & Feedback page — it goes straight to the person building this, no ticket system in between. Pull requests are welcome too.
Chatbots you generate and download: unrestricted, free for any use, including commercial — see LICENSE.md.
This repository (the generator tool itself): free for personal, educational, or open-source use. A commercial licence is required to embed, white-label, or resell the generator as a competing product.
📧 Commercial licence enquiries: via the Contact & Feedback page
You're welcome to explore and fork this code for personal or open-source use — see LICENSE.md for exactly what that covers.
If you're planning something commercial, please reach out first via the Contact & Feedback page rather than assuming — it's a quick conversation and avoids a licence dispute later.